The Noblest of Fruits
by Gajevyaddict
Summary: A short bit of utter Lumione fluff. It's shameless. It Lucius and Hermione, there is an apple involved. Seriously I have no idea how to summarize this so please just give it a chance.


**A/n: This is just a short bit of Lumione fluff I wrote for a contest in Hermione's Haven. I may expand on it later or I may not. This really was written as a one-shot but I've found that I left it open enough that I could add more later on. So anyway enjoy this fluffy fuzzy bunny! As always, hope you enjoy reading as much as I love writing.**

Henry David Thoreau- "Surely the apple is the noblest of fruits."

Hermione snuck into the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. She had disillusioned herself, as well as silenced her shoes and breathing, and snuck from her teacher's living quarters. As the muggle studies teacher her quarters were a couple floors down. She was careful and avoided all of the secret passages. Coming across a straggling student would ruin her plans.

When Lucius had first been released from Azkaban she had hated the idea. She hated him and didn't understand even with how he finally turned to the side of the light in the final battle how they could just let him off. When Minerva had accepted him for the DADA teacher she had been furious. She actually recalled a four-hour long rant including magical power-point of all the reasons he shouldn't be a teacher. All of it had fallen on deaf ears.

The first time he had come to apologize to her she ignored it. The next time he had sent a single rose. Each consecutive time he'd apologized and received no response he had sent more ridiculous presents. The fifth time he apologized her entire room had been filled with water lilies. The eighth time he had sent enough chocolates to cover her entire bedroom. She'd opened the chocolate box and it had exploded chocolates everywhere. She had laughed at that but still refused to forgive him. The twenty-eighth time he had apologized he had sent her a teddy bear the size of the mountain troll they had fought in first year, along with 28 dozen white roses. The proof that he had not only been paying attention to how many times he had apologized but also her history had done it. She'd accepted his apology warily.

In the five years since that last apology, they'd actually started dating. Granted it wasn't anything like a normal couple. Their conversations were more often debates than endearments. Their holidays were spent trying to one-up the other on gifts. The even had a competition going on who could get more apples on the others desk, a play on the muggle idea of students giving teachers apples. It was all in the name of fun though, even though their traps would be considered quite dangerous to anyone outside of their relationship. Most people would probably be concerned about the healthiness of it. Her friends however just shook their heads. They knew if Hermione wasn't being challenged somehow, she would quickly grow bored. She'd been surprised at how well they had taken the news that they were dating. Even Ginny had just said to let the past be in the past. She'd actually accepted his apology before Hermione had.

As she finally reached the door she felt for the wards. Of course, they were keyed to his blood. She shook her head, hardly a challenge anymore. She pulled the small vial out of one of her pockets. She checked to make sure there wasn't an alarm woven into the ward. When that came back negative she smirked. Really Lucius? Getting awfully careless in your old age. She dipped her finger into the vial and smeared her hand with the blood.

As she pressed her hand against the door it lit up like a beacon and she winced. Well, luckily no one else was up at two a.m. to catch her. Finally, the door popped open and the light died out. Ever paranoid she waved her wand to recheck for other wards on the inside of the door. Ah, there it was. An alarm ward inside the thresh hold. Tricky tricky. She smiled, and she just bet Lucius thought he was clever. Then again she supposed most witches and wizards who would have broken into his classroom weren't the brightest of their age either. She rolled her eyes. She really hated that moniker.

As she dismantled the last ward and stepped into the classroom she had to hold in a gasp. Invisible ropes instantly wrapped around her. If she hadn't been really good at not moving when surprised she would have fallen over. "Damn it Lucius." She was glad she was still silenced as she cursed his name. The wandless non-verbal finite took her two tries. Sometime's that man really irritated her. As the ropes dropped away she removed the silencing spell in case there were any more booby traps. Wandless magic was hard enough wandless and non-verbal had always been her weakness.

She made it another few feet closer to his desk before she had to dive to the side. A quick cushioning charm and the cage crashed to the floor seconds later without making a sound. That one was too close. She needed to be more careful. She inched closer to the desk slowly. Suddenly one of the rocks beneath her sank. "Oh shit." She knew she shouldn't have shown him Indiana Jones. As a giant boulder came flying towards her from the ceiling she groaned. "Bombarda." She whispered the spell and the rock blew to bits. A quick summoning charm kept them all from hitting the floor. She glared at the ceiling. "No more of that now." She cast a netting spell across the top of the room.

She made it another few feet without triggering a trap. The next step she took however and the floor split in half. She groaned again. "No more adventure movies for him. This is ridiculous." Calling a house elf was cheating and Lucius new how much she hated flying. She looked at the pebbles and transfigured them into a rope bridge crossing the chasm. As she walked across slowly she sighed in relief. At least he hadn't made it impossible to cross. When she finally reached the other side it was only a few more steps to the desk.

As she took the last few steps she pulled the apple out of her pocket. She sat down in his chair and hissed when she felt more ropes. She glared at her body. Rather than doing anything though she tossed the apple onto the desk. She smiled. Oh well, at least she had managed that. She won this round even if he did have her tied up.

...

The next room over in the castle, the moment the apple had touched the desk a screaming alarm went off. Lucius sat bolt upright in bed. "Oh, that clever witch. I'll get her next time around for sure." He slid out of bed and walked towards his closet. A flick of his wand shut the alarm off and another summoned his teaching robes to him. He got dressed quickly and stepped into his classroom. He flicked his wand and all the traps except the one on his chair were canceled.

He crossed the room and stood behind the chair, "Oh my dear witch you might have won this battle but from the looks, you lost it as well. Now you are at my mercy. Whatever should I do with you, you beautiful clever witch?"

Hermione smirked up at him, "Well you could let me go. But that doesn't sound like much fun for either one of us."

Lucius looked at her with a smile, "Tut tut love you know better than that." He leaned down and kissed her gently on the lips. "To the winner go the spoils love." He trailed his lips over her neck as he flicked his wand and the classroom door slammed and warded shut. They still had a couple of hours before breakfast and he planned to thoroughly enjoy them with his witch.

...

Hermione woke up two weeks later with a smile on her face. That was until she sat up and stretched. Mid-stretch her eyes flew open and she looked at her desk in the bedroom. An innocent looking bright red apple sat there. "That doesn't count you sneaky Slytherin! It has to be the desk in the classroom!"

All of a sudden a voice came from the living room area of her quarters. "Why don't you look closer?" Hermione jumped but did look closer at the apple. Not seeing anything she got up and walked over to it. She gasped at what she saw. She turned towards the living room but jumped again when she realized that he was no longer in the living room but was kneeling right in front of her holding the ring that had just been on the stem of the apple.

It was a beautiful ring. A bright ruby shaped in an apple was the main stone and it was surrounded by emerald leaves. "Hermione, I thought my life was over when I lost Narcissa at the end of the war. But I was given a chance at redemption for my actions. I was given a teaching position, and while most would consider the job annoying or a form of punishment I couldn't bring myself to do so. And do you know why? It was because I met this truly fiery witch. She wouldn't forgive me you see and I went through all these outlandish things just to get her to forgive me. I sent her so many flowers that I single-handedly ensured that the florist would be happy for years to come. Chocolates so many that I had to buy from multiple shops lest I buy all the chocolate in Honeydukes. Yet nothing worked. I'd apologized once a month for over two years. Then though, then I figured it out. It wasn't about the expensiveness of the gifts. This witch wanted them to mean something. She wanted to know I meant my apology. So I asked about her school days. I learned. And I counted each time I apologized. And finally, I had an idea. I would prove that I meant my apology by giving her something that reminded her of her first friends. And it worked she forgave me. But I wasn't happy then either. You see this fiery, beautiful, intelligent witch had caught my eye. I needed her to be mine. And eventually she was, we started dating and sleeping together, our talks were invigorating and thought inspiring, it was never a dull moment. But eventually even that wasn't enough, for you see, I'm a greedy man. A greedy man who is utterly and hopelessly in love with you. Hermione, will you do me the honors and be my wife for the rest of our lives?"

Hermione's eyes sparkled with unshed tears, and she had a lump in her throat almost the size of a troll. All she could do was nod at him. Lucius's smile lit up the room, and she had a feeling if they'd been outside it would have lit the whole world. No one had ever looked at her with that much love in their eyes and she started crying in earnest. Lucius instantly looked worried and pulled her to him. "Was it too soon? You said yes, aren't you happy love?"

Hermione started laughing, "Oh Lucius, you would think, as a Slytherin who is so good at hiding his emotions you would at least know how to recognize them. Of course, I'm happy you dolt. They are happy tears." Lucius just smiled again and continued to hold her. The most beautiful witch in the world had just agreed to be his wife and nothing in the world could make him happier.


End file.
